Easy Marinade and Glass Jars for Drinks

The Easiest and Most Foolproof Marinade - Period.

As I was preparing our steaks for dinner tonight, it dawned on me that I haven't posted a recipe for quite awhile and that my super quick and easy marinade would be perfect to share on the blog.

This is the ONLY marinade I use. Ever. It is perfect with steak, pork and chicken. Everything we've tried it on tastes amazing. It tastes best if you can give 3-4 hours for your meat to hang out in this marinade. Also, it tastes amazing on grilled meat. I've tried it on meat I've baked, but it's just not the same.

So what's in it? Well I'll tell you but if you're super OCD about measuring stuff, you're not going to like me, lol! This is one of those 'a little of this, a little of that' kind of recipes. However, it's virtually foolproof! Unless you dumped a whole carton of salt on it, I can't really see you messing it up.

We're grilling steaks tonight, so I'll show you how I prepare my steaks with this easy marinade.

Here is a list of the ingredients. You'll see there's nothing strange on it, it's all stuff that most of us have in our kitchens on a day to day basis.

Easy Marinade Ingredients

salt and pepper

fresh minced garlic

fresh lemon or lime wedge

drizzle of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

low-sodium soy sauce

That's it. Easy enough, right?

So start by generously sprinkling your meat of choice with salt and pepper.

Notice the next ingredient is 'fresh' minced garlic. Do NOT substitute garlic powder - please! The full bodied flavor of this marinade all comes together around the garlic. Trust me, you don't want to leave it out.

Don't have a garlic press? Not a problem. I don't either! What I do have is my very favorite knife ever - a Santoku knife. I first heard about this knife on Rachel Ray's show and I found mine at Home Goods for about $15.00 - probably cheaper than a garlic press. This knife is truly amazing!

Let me show you how easy it is to mince garlic -

1. You've got a clove of garlic but it's covered in the fine, sticky peel. How do you remove???

2. Easy! Lay the flat of your knife on top and give it a good whack with your other hand (I use my fist). It smashes the clove and the peel just slips right off.

3. Line up all your cloves and chop through them one time so they're in big pieces. Then, with the heel of one hand on the front of the blade, use your other hand to bring the knife up and down in small, continuous motions. You'll have to stop periodically to clean the garlic off your knife. Move through the garlic until it's as fine as you want it.

4. Voila, in less than a minute you have perfectly minced garlic! And no garlic press to clean!!

So here is my steak with all the above ingredients on it (salt, pepper and fresh minced garlic). Wondering how much garlic to use? It's personal preference but I use one small clove per steak or so. Use more or less depending on how much you're in love with garlic :)

A squeeze of fresh lemon or lime is next. I cut a wedge or two from my lemon or lime. Again, depends on how much meat you have.

Then you want just a small drizzle of EVOO. I would say that I used no more than a teaspoon of oil for this plate of meat. I think it helps keep the meat tender.

Last is the low sodium soy sauce. If you're using the full sodium version, you may want to omit salt altogether. I'm fairly generous with this, meaning I douse each piece of meat really well. For this plate, I maybe used 1/4 cup of soy sauce.

Then I just flip my meat a couple times so that all the goodness from the top is distributed to the bottom as well and both sides of meat get marinated. Cover and refrigerate until your hubs gets home and is ready to get his grill on :)

Mmmmmm, at this point, the whole house smells just amazing :) My tummy is a-rumbling!

But before I go, I've got one more thing to share with you today. I recently read a post by Aunt Ruthie of Sugar Pie Farmhouse about the toxicity of plastic and why she has switched over to glass in her kitchen. Obviously plastic containers are still going to be a staple in many of our homes (mine included) but one of the things she is using that I found so charming and do-able is a glass Ball jar with a lid and straw as her drinking glass.

While I was in Target today, I wandered through the Dollar Spot like I always do and what did I see but these charming screw top lids for canning jars (with a hole for a straw)!! As I dug around a little further, I found a 2-pack of jars with faux-zinc lids that looked like a perfect match. The jars were $3/pkg and the lids were $1 each. I bought 2 lids and 1 package of jars. So for only $2.50 each, I have healthy and cute drinking jars :) I think I'll be able to use the faux-zinc lids on some of my antique mason jars - I'm hoping they fit! (Update: they did)

I added some lime slices to my water because it's supposed to be a natural aid in digestion and anti-toxins throughout the day as you sip. There are several other easy additions you can add to your drinking water to help your body detox. It's not just something they do at the Spa because it looks impressive...there's a reason behind it!

Too cute, right? I know I'll feel better drinking water all day long from something that isn't leaching chemicals and toxins into my body.

I hope you find this information helpful and my marinade recipe as delicious as we do! Please let me know if you have any questions; I'd love to know if you try it too!!

2 comments:

Cindy I'm coming all the way to Tenessee from Canada - would you grill me up some marinated steaks with fancy jar lime water???Serious... get your grocery on - cause this looks too good to miss out on!!!

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